Mage Proving Grounds - Endless

Hi friends,

I'm having trouble with Endless proving grounds as frost. Since gear is scaled down (to 463 i think), I'm not sure what I should be going for in terms of stats. The biggest roadblock for me is the Big Sha right before round 20. You have about 20seconds to burn ~8mil. I use time warp and all CDs, and the closest I've been is about 1%.

I'm speccing NT, invocation and ring of frost, glyph water ele, splitting ice, and CoC. My gear is all gemmed for fire, but I'm going all haste for reforges.

Any one have tips? I can't imagine I'd be able to get the wave30 Sha down if I can't get 20.

I watched the mage from PTR who got to wave 87, that was insane...but I'm not really doing much different than he is, besides not having 5.4 trinkets.

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Well, after a couple more attempts I got to wave 23, so I just need to get lucky with procs

I just did endless 30. Took me like 4 hours. My main spec is arcane, but I had to go frost and realized, after some tries, that I would have to fully regem (including normal meta), if I wanted to hit 30, as well as using flask and 300 food.

I didn't really have any problems with the big sha.

Start your normal rotation on him.
When there's 40 secs left on the timer, TW.
Try to fish for all 3 procs, just before the timer hits 20 secs.
When timer hits 20 and you have as many procs as possible, take a berserker buff (which you ofc are saving from an earlier wave ) and finish him with burst and Frozen Orb.

Good luck!

Edit: oh wow, just realized I did it without a cloak enchant. Forgot to put lightweave back on my cloak after upgrading it, zzzz

I just did endless 30. Took me like 4 hours. My main spec is arcane, but I had to go frost and realized, after some tries, that I would have to fully regem (including normal meta), if I wanted to hit 30, as well as using flask and 300 food.

I didn't really have any problems with the big sha.

Start your normal rotation on him.
When there's 40 secs left on the timer, TW.
Try to fish for all 3 procs, just before the timer hits 20 secs.
When timer hits 20 and you have as many procs as possible, take a berserker buff (which you ofc are saving from an earlier wave ) and finish him with burst and Frozen Orb.

Good luck!

Edit: oh wow, just realized I did it without a cloak enchant. Forgot to put lightweave back on my cloak after upgrading it, zzzz

Anyone tried endless as Arcane yet? I did Gold as arcane last night, but I'm not sure if I hate myself enough to attempt 30 as arcane.

I did. Made it to wave 38. I messed the CCs, a banshee spawned and things got out of control I'll try again later and I'm sure Arcane can easily reach higher wave levels.

Some tips:

* Ice Floes and RoP are mandatory. Frostjaw helps a lot to deep freeze targets that should be burned quickly. Use LB to keep yours CCs in control (NT cleave will break it)
* Rapid Displacement glyph is very useful to avoid amber bombs. Counterspell glyph might be useful too, so u wont break your casts to interrupt.
* CC priority: monkey > healer > amber caster.
* SAVE the berserking buff for each Sha Illusion phase. There are 2 buffs that should be used for 2 Shas. The buff will not vanish in time, but will not stack if u save it.
* Reforge full mastery. Idk if its intended, but mastery isnt scaling down (I'm sitting at 13k mastery and 3k haste).
* Save and blow ALL your offensive CDs on the big Sha illusion when his shield is about to fall.
* You will need flask and foods to reach higher levels! 30 might be doable without them.

I got to wave 49 as frost reforged correctly but gemmed for fire so it's definitely possible. Just make sure you have ALL your cooldowns on the big bosses. Take zerking when 35 sec left, mirror image 30 sec left etc (even though he is in shield state).

I did. Made it to wave 38. I messed the CCs, a banshee spawned and things got out of control I'll try again later and I'm sure Arcane can easily reach higher wave levels.

Some tips:

* Ice Floes and RoP are mandatory. Frostjaw helps a lot to deep freeze targets that should be burned quickly. Use LB to keep yours CCs in control (NT cleave will break it)
* Rapid Displacement glyph is very useful to avoid amber bombs. Counterspell glyph might be useful too, so u wont break your casts to interrupt.
* CC priority: monkey > healer > amber caster.
* SAVE the berserking buff for each Sha Illusion phase. There are 2 buffs that should be used for 2 Shas. The buff will not vanish in time, but will not stack if u save it.
* Reforge full mastery. Idk if its intended, but mastery isnt scaling down (I'm sitting at 13k mastery and 3k haste).
* Save and blow ALL your offensive CDs on the big Sha illusion when his shield is about to fall.
* You will need flask and foods to reach higher levels! 30 might be doable without them.

The combat tactics you'll learn with practice. GL;HF

Hm I wouldn't really say it's mandatory, I made endless 35 as arcane with Blazing Speed and Incanter's Ward, there's definitely some wriggle room there. Other than that I agree with everything. I glyphed AP in addition to both blink glyphs and popped all 3 minute cds on the 5x and 10x waves (both the sha), and popped TW on every 10x wave (1 wave lasts 1 minute, so it will be up for the 20, 30, etc), although you won't strictly be needing it till 30+.

You don't necessarily need procs, you just need to pop stuff at the right time.

While you didn't SAY this specifically, I'd just like to confirm it. You ARE popping your cooldowns when his shield is DOWN, right? (Time Warp you could pop a bit earlier to get the full 40s in) Stuff to pop include the following:
- Time Warp (You get one for every X0 wave Sha)
- Icy Veins (Once every 3 waves; use for W5/W10)
- Berserking Buff (These should definitely be saved for X0 waves)
- Frozen Orb (Once per wave, and they will definitely give you the boost you need)

Additional info:
- LB is probably better overall for PG. Most of the enemies are spread out, so NT will be weaker. (Sha's adds don't move into him, so it's a pure DPS increase on Sha)
- Invo is the best L90 to use as it gives you the mobility to move as well as keep the highest uptime on it.
- Don't ever hesitate to use Frozen Orb. It's invaluable to use for the bunny packs.
- Pet Freeze is amazing for the monkies, and almost mandatory for Banshees if you're out of procs to blow her up.
- While Raid Geared for Frost (~12-13k Haste > Mastery), if you have a bit more Mastery over Haste, it won't be the end of the world. Too much Crit is just a waste of stats though, so I'd definitely recommend trying it while Frost-reforged.

You guys know your stuff! =) I tried PGs yesterday with Fire. Breezed through Bronze, wiped a couple of times on Silver and spent 1.5 hours in Gold. Damn it's hard! Stupid Banshees, hate them! Had to build all my tactics around getting HS and having a freeze of some kind available for each Banshee. The best attempt was 680k left on the Sha from the last wave.

I was lazy though - didn't bring any stat food and used +500 crystal instead of a flask. Still, I foresee RNG screwing me up even more in Endless as Fire. Is Endless harder than Gold from the start or the first ~10 waves are for warming up?

Endless is just the same 10 waves looped over and over, wave 11 is just wave 1 with more hp, and so on. So some later waves can be easier than the ones prior due to the kinds of mobs that spawn - 21 might be easier than 10 for instance.

Eventually the health buff will do you in but if you can get the first 1-10 down cleanly with a comfortable margin, then really endless 30 is just doing that again twice without screwing up.

You guys know your stuff! =) I tried PGs yesterday with Fire. Breezed through Bronze, wiped a couple of times on Silver and spent 1.5 hours in Gold. Damn it's hard! Stupid Banshees, hate them! Had to build all my tactics around getting HS and having a freeze of some kind available for each Banshee. The best attempt was 680k left on the Sha from the last wave.

I was lazy though - didn't bring any stat food and used +500 crystal instead of a flask. Still, I foresee RNG screwing me up even more in Endless as Fire. Is Endless harder than Gold from the start or the first ~10 waves are for warming up?

Banshees without a Hot Streak is just asking to lose That's why I like Frost a lot better (Plus, it scales like shit, so it's not as badly affected like Arcane and Fire)